April 1, 2017 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

April Fool Fun!

Happy April 1st!

Thank you Sarah Pecorino Illustration for the hilarious “dot dudes” graphics 🙂

Do you celebrate April Fool with your students?

This year April 1st arrives on a Saturday (blessing in disguise!), but that didn’t stop my firsties from having fun!

On Friday, we read April Fool! Watch Out at School! (Gilbert) by Diana deGroat (affiliate link). My students were engaged 100%…the storyline really played to their strengths, haha. I’m pretty sure every general educator was NOT feeling the love as my littles returned to class with a whole new repertoire of pranks. I should probably bring a coffee treat on Monday 🙂

Here’s the evidence:

But no worries, I got them back April Fool style!

They returned after lunch and I announced that we had a spelling test and IF we showed grit and finished early, I had a new game to teach them!

They quickly got into their spelling test “positions” which include self-selected seats…some students choose a table, some students prefer a floor cushion (wobble seat) with a whiteboard slant “desk” and some students like to lie on their bellies.

I passed out the papers, put on a straight face, and announced that they should do their best because this test will be graded and put on their report card. No grumbles…yet!

Then I began reading these words and reminded them to use their strategies (stretch out the sounds, use the sound-spelling card visuals, word wall, etc.):

It was AWESOME to see my students’ responses! I thought they were especially gritty!

#yougogirl!

I was cracking up about some of the things I was hearing…one student asked to borrow a dictionary (woohoo!) and another student consoled another by saying “it’s okay, just use stretchy snake!” hahaha.

When I announced “just 54 more words to go!” one student asked what would happen if we didn’t finish. I told him we would have to come in on Saturday! They lasted until word #7. I had one student that looked like he was actually getting upset and I definitely didn’t want that, so #8 became “April Fool!” Don’t worry, afterward he thought the whole thing was absolutely hilarious! I would never ever stress my students on purpose, it was for fun and they really enjoyed it. And we did follow up with a joyful game of “scoot” – it was a great wrap up to our learning week!

What do you do to celebrate April Fool?

Here’s a few more ideas from a past blogpost…plus an idiom freebie! Enjoy 🙂

April Fool’s! Idioms and BIG Words

Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day!!

Besides cracking a few jokes (first grade style), we won’t be purposely celebrating April 1st as a special day at my school. My students are precious and so sweet, but a few jokes could seriously derail our focus on instruction. But I did want to share a couple things I have been using that my students have loved!

BIG Words

Have you seen these from Anthropologie?!

A coworker was using them…they are absolutely hilarious! She also teaches special education and now her students are walking around calling each other “rapscallions” and other such terms. That’s probably not the purpose of the cards, but they are really fun! I couldn’t find them in the stores (but found TONS of other things), so I ordered them online. They are a must have!

Idioms

We don’t teach idioms as a standard, but I have been using them similar to the BIG words flashcards. My students benefit from any and all extra vocabulary and conversational skills. They LOVE these cards and are little mimics throwing these expressions around while working in small groups (again, probably not what they are intended for).

I can just imagine what my students’ families are saying about their teacher!

Here’s an idiom freebie to try out – perfect for a lil’ April Fool’s FUN:

These are extra pages that are coordinated with my Idioms Activity Pack:

The awesome idiom graphics are from ATLTeacher. My students love his artwork!

I would love to hear how you celebrate April Fool’s Day with your students!

Thanks for reading 🙂

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March 28, 2017 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Activities for Easter

Here are my tried and true activities for Easter!

Happy Spring and Almost-Easter! We still have two weeks (9 more school days!) until Spring Break, so I’m bringing out the spring favorites to power through!

Easter always seems to arrive in a hurry in my classroom. We just finished St. Patrick’s Day, welcomed the first day of spring, as well as wrapped up Quarter 3 with testing. Then all of a sudden we only have two weeks left to add a little bunny fun before our week-long Spring Break!

Here’s what we’ve been up to…

My reading intervention book is enjoying our very first chapter book! This is the first book in the series featuring Zoey and Sassafras (affiliate link):

Dragons and Marshmallows (Zoey and Sassafras)

I cannot say enough good things about this book! Zoey has already become a heroine among my students and we can’t wait to follow her adventures with two more books.

Sidenote: I was so impressed with Asia Citro, that I also purchased one of her family fun science guides. It’s picture perfect and I’ll have to dedicate a whole blogpost to it!

Last week, we learned about the scientific method in Dragons and Marshmallows and this week, we decided to try it out on our own:

We used our new scientific journals (just like Zoey!) and will be capturing our jelly bean observations throughout the week. Stay tuned to see our results!

Quick note of advice: I created a journal to last the entire week, but I’ve already noticed – these jelly beans are most likely NOT going to make it through the week. My prediction? We will be documenting that all we have left by Friday are cups of colored water 😉

About once a week, we are take a break from Zoey and being scientists to enjoy an Easter-themed read aloud.

Here are the books I’ve been using the past couple years:

Last year was my first year reading The Easter Bunny’s Assistant and I have to admit, I wasn’t super impressed. But this year? My students LOVED the read aloud! Like begged-me-to-read-it-again loved. I’m not sure what that says about this year’s group, lol. I also found this adorable youtube video from Mrs. Clark for an engaging follow-up.

The Easter Bunny’s Assistant

Nobunny’s Perfect is a cute and simple read aloud that provides a nice reminder that we all make mistakes (a little bunny-growth-mindset!):

Nobunny’s Perfect

And of course, we read about the “Old Lady” – a beloved character with my group!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick!

In addition to our holiday books and jelly bean science, here are a few more activities we are enjoying for Easter:

Please hop over to my store for a closer look at activities for Easter!

Have a fantastic week 🙂

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March 12, 2017 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Lucky!

Are you feeling lucky?

If you are looking for some “lucky” deals to support your students, check out #SpEdisLucky at Teachers Pay Teachers! There are some fantastic dollar deals to celebrate St Patrick’s Day (and beyond):

If you hop over to my store, you’ll find the following products on sale for only $1.00 through March 13:

Pinch Me! Assessment Cards $4.00 $1.00

These quick, hands-on assessment cards will provide a quick “temperature check” on how your students are understanding during whole or small group instruction. There are over 25 options and a FREE set in the preview!

Shamrock Sentence Builders $2.50 $1.00

Simply print and add to your Guided Reading center! This week, my students have been working collaboratively to build lucky sentences during Daily 5: Work on Writing. There’s also a second activity included for Work Work!

What lucky activities are you doing this month with your students?

Please check back soon for our favorite Irish read aloud books and activities!

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February 9, 2017 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Valentine Books

We started Valentine books a week early!

Photo by Snapshots and Smiles

As I write this post to share our Valentine read-alouds, I realize we really need to add to our repertoire!

Please leave a comment with a tried and true recommendation for a sweet-themed book! Thanks 🙂

Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink

This is hands-down our favorite Valentine book! My students were appalled that Gilbert pulled this stunt (you’ll have to read it to find out!). This book is definitely secure at #1 on our Valentine book list!

The Biggest Valentine Ever

This is a sweet and simple book that lends itself to the big event…making valentines. My intervention group will be completing themed projects in their classroom, but we didn’t want to miss out. I tied in a colorful activity with our spelling words for the week. It’s tough to see, but my students decorated a color-by-code spelling paper and we turned them into decorations 🙂

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose!

No holiday is complete in our resource room without a story about the “old lady.” I love emphasizing story elements using this series because my students are so shocked to realize many of the pages feature the inside of her stomach – what a great setting!

The Day It Rained Hearts

Fantastic book for Valentine’s Day and beyond! I save this book for February 14 and we follow it up with conversation heart activities ♥

Are there any must-have titles we need to add to our Valentine book list?

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January 29, 2017 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Happy Groundhog Day!

Here’s a quick post to share some of my favorite ideas to celebrate Phil and his counterparts!

February 2nd just happened to also be our 100th day this year! Groundhog’s Day will still get a little attention during my reading intervention groups 🙂

Every year I use this writing activity to make our predictions:

You can find these pages, plus a sight word game, printables, vocabulary cards, and more in my Happy Groundhog Day packet – on sale for $1.00 this week!

I’m also collecting ideas from other teachers here on my “Sweet” Pinterest board…it’s a mix of everything February 🙂

What are your predictions for this winter? We haven’t seen major snow yet, so I hope Phil helps us out this year!

Thanks for reading 🙂

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January 12, 2017 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Martin Luther King, Jr.

This post features favorite activities to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I look forward to this week every year!

I’m not sure what background knowledge your students bring to this important topic, but my first graders always have a lot of question and A LOT to share!

It is both heartwarming and heartbreaking to hear these six year olds share their interpretation of what equality looks like and feels like to them, as well as their hopes and fears for the future. This is the week that we seem to take “turn and talk” to a whole new level and many lightbulb moments go off for my students who are fascinated to learn more about the civil rights movement.

One huge takeaway I experienced both this year and in years past: my students cannot believe the events from Martin Luther King, Jr. happened fifty years ago…they are convinced this is a current event. And as I listen to their thoughts, I really can’t blame them.

We kicked off this week with these two interactive read alouds (affiliate links):

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

National Geographic Readers: Martin Luther King, Jr. (Readers Bios)

There are endless ideas to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. for the classroom and I’m sharing a few in a throwback post below. I feel the most important activity though is to follow the children’s lead… helping them make sense (at least the best we can) of the events and understand their role in shaping the future. Their words are powerful and they do have the opportunity to bring changes when they feel they need to stand up for what’s right for themselves and others around them. Such a powerful message!

Here’s the post from last year…please be sure to read through the end!

Happy Frozen Friday!

We all have the day OFF here in the Mid-Atlantic in preparation for the impending blizzard!

If you’re in the path of this mega-storm, please stay safe and warm!

It was a great week, but WAY too short. We only had two teaching days.

We spent Tuesday celebrating the life of…

Photograph from Adventures of a Schoolmarm

My students walked into Guided Reading and saw this:

I found this idea from Herding Kats in Kindergarten (♥)

The link will take you directly to her lesson idea, but I hope you also treat yourself to reading more of her blog. So refreshing and TONS of great ideas.

I had the red, white, and black paper set up in an alternating pattern with the coordinating crayons. My students were instructed to have a seat and draw while I read Martin’s Big Words. It was interesting to watch them avoid the white paper option at first! Three students (the last to sit down) had to use white and didn’t look to thrilled about it. One immediately got flustered (“But, I can’t see anything!”). I simply continued reading, stopping to say “please keep drawing while you’re listening.” Another student with the white paper was looking around at his teammates a bit puzzled, but didn’t say anything. Finally, two big-hearted souls took it upon themselves to offer up their red & black crayons as a trade for the white crayon…and then more trading began occurring around the carpet.

. I was one happy teacher! You should have seen the smiles of pride when we made the connection to what they did (helped find a solution to someone in need) to Martin Luther King’s life.

Did I mention that this was a wonderful group of six-year olds who I provide special education services to?

Next, I brought out these…

I thought this was going to be the climax of the lesson, but they seemed FREAKED out by the eggs. What?!? We made our predictions (11/12 said the insides would be different) and then I cracked the first egg. They SCREAMED. I gave them plenty of notice that I was going to crack the next egg and there would be no screaming. They nodded in agreement. I cracked the 2nd egg. They SCREAMED even louder! The lesson quickly lost its impact after all that excitement 😉

My firsties had been at the carpet just a tad too long and things were unraveling a bit. We are still knee-deep in testing (reading levels), so instead of stations, I had them work on this art project. It was a special “treat” since we often don’t have time for anything crafty. Following directions was not deemed a high priority for this group on this particular day, so I collected their completed pictures and didn’t think much about it.

Later that night at home, I set up the collage just for kicks.

This is what it looked like:

♥ ♥ ♥

If you know what this was “supposed” to look like, you may not recognize this project, but I couldn’t love it anymore! It makes me smile…even the big blue square on the left from my extra spunky friend! I will definitely be seeking out more projects from Art with Jenny K!

I have more to share, but for now I need to get back to my portfolio that’s due in 46 days! This weekend will be all about writing, documenting, coffee-drinking, snow-shoveling, and this:

YUM!

Back to 2017…

We are doing many of those activities this week (thankfully not repeating the blizzard OR my portfolio ;)) and adding a few new projects.

Check out this freebie from Erin Waters at Beyond the Beanstalk! I can’t display our final bulletin board with all my students’ pictures, but here’s a recap of their dreams ♥:

Here’s a collection of ideas to help celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. in your classroom: Let Freedom Ring

I also always share this very quick video clip from our friend Kid President! It’s not intended as informative, but more as a pep talk 🙂

Thank you for reading!

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December 6, 2016 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Elf Antics!

Are you up to ears in elf antics…yet?

I know there are many, many teachers and parents who don’t love the ~~creepy~~ cute little pal, but please don’t judge this desperate teacher. I resisted for so long, but finally caved about four years ago. And it has made a HUGE difference in enjoying December vs. surviving December!

In my resource room, we do not do candy or food treats and I do not emphasize the “nice” and/or “naughty” behavior of the children. We already have many behavior charts, Classroom Dojo, and other systems in place for that 🙂

Instead, we talk about the spirit of kindness and enjoy the mischievous pranks our visitor plays on us (mostly me!).

Before he arrived for the season, I had to make sure he had the latest elf couture:

Elf Outfits and Freebie at Positively Learning

#sorrynotsorry

Next, he arrived in a box with and brought writing journals to chronicle all his adventures with us!

Everyday we complete one page from my Elf Antics packet (freebie!). I complete a model with my students and then they work in their journals as part of the Guided Reading centers.

We are only on Day Three, but it’s already so nice to see how committed my students are to their writing! This is truly why I continue to use this packet every year…it seems to “launch” some of my struggling writers to the next stage 🙂

Of course, in keeping with tradition, the elf needed a name. Below is what my students came up before I took control and had a mini-conference with the little guy. He whispered to me that he liked Beckham the best, thank goodness! I’m not sure if he realizes he’s named after Odell Beckham, Jr.

His presence has been a bit of a distraction though, and saying “he left and went for a walk” further distracted my littles who should have been focused on their work. The next day, after we walked into magnet letter mayhem, I wised up and put Beckham in a timeout to think about his choices:

If you need any additional ideas for this time of year, please check out my Elf Antics freebie! I also created a pinterest board to follow with the same “Elf Antics” title. I found the packet on our school’s copier last week for another classroom …that made me so happy!

Do you have a classroom elf this year? What is his or her name and how is it working for you? Please leave a comment and share!

Thanks for reading!

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November 2, 2016 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Pumpkin Time!

Did you survive Halloween Monday?!?

We celebrated the holiday with a fantastic farm field trip AND extended our pumpkin time with a hands-on exploration!

Our field trip was rescheduled due to weather, so we visited Lawyer’s Winterbrook Farm on Monday. It was an EPIC trip! I highly recommend this farm…everyone there was so gracious and our city-slickers LOVED it!

Here’s a few highlights:

I’m not going to sugar-coat it though…Tuesday was a bit rough. After rescheduling our trip, we had to do some creative shuffling in our schedules to wrap up October. My small intervention group had already completed half of their pumpkin investigation and we spent November 1st conducting our hands-on exploration:

Positively Learning Pumpkin Time: Pumpkin Exploration

Before…

Positively Learning Pumpkin Time: Pumpkin Investigation

After!

We also enjoyed several pumpkin-themed read alouds and used Paige Bessick’s (of Our Elementary Lives) Pumpkin Investigation unit! Thanks Paige for the fabulous guide – I highly recommend it to keep the activity structured 🙂

We also completed a pumpkin life cycle and descriptive writing based on these mentor texts:

Thank you for reading about our pumpkin time FUN! Please stop back next week to see what we’re up to next!

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October 12, 2016 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Spooky Read Alouds Part One

BOO! It’s October

and we are already into our Spooky Read Alouds!

This is “Part One” because we have enough spooky read alouds for the entire month!

We kicked off with a new-to-us book that would be perfect for any time of year:

Night of the Veggie Monster

I discovered this ADORABLE read aloud from Paige Bessick, the talented teacher-author of Our Elementary Lives. She has an interactive read aloud packet (here!) featuring this not-so-spooky read aloud. My students were definitely making connections as they listened – they are no strangers to tantrums 😉

Owl Moon

This is book is not intended to be spooky in the Halloween sense, but the descriptive writing lends to a “haunted” feeling as you can picture this father-daughter pair quietly navigating the forest at night. Expect many call and response owl hootings for the rest of the day if you read aloud this beautiful story!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

This book is a MUST read! There’s also an youtube video clip I show every year…but beware: once you play it, you will NOT be able to get this song out of your head! Trust me.

Room on the Broom

Yup, we went there already…I was planning on pumpkin read alouds for this week (we have enough for two weeks!), but my students saw the cover displayed and requested this one! I absolutely cannot say no when my sweet students ask to be read to. This is a rough and tumble group and they are requesting to listen intently to a read aloud? It makes my teacher heart so happy!

We enjoyed this book as a read aloud and a writing activity (accompanying writing list can be found here):

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more titles…

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April 8, 2016 By Jennifer 2 Comments

Everyday is Earth Day

Earth Day is April 22, 2016!

How do you celebrate with your children or students?

As a special educator, I don’t often have extra instructional time devoted to themes or holidays. I have to be pretty creative to sneak them in with our scope and sequence for our core content.

Earth Day is much easier because technically, everyday is Earth Day! The April holiday serves has a good reminder to emphasis how important it is (with suggested concrete steps) to take care of where we live. I usually kick off the discussion with announcing “Everyday is Earth Day” and then have my students discuss what they means to them.

This first week of month of April began with a read-aloud of The Lorax, tying in nicely with our year-long focus on character education. After we’ve developed a frame of reference on why taking care of our planet is important, I can help my students continue the conversation and develop connections using themed products throughout the month (and beyond).

For teaching ideas and a math freebie, check out my Pinterest board and Earth Day Cover-Up!

The Cover-Up board can be used for number identification, addition/subtraction facts, or even answering questions from numbered task cards. Simply add dice!

Do you have a favorite activity to share? Please comment with the link and I can check it out and add to the pinboard! Thanks 🙂

I also wanted to share a few random pictures from our busy week back from Spring Break:

The pictures above were taking a hour apart! Can you tell which was the “before” and which is the “after,” lol?

We finally made it to “Anger!” My lunch buddies (Social Skills: Fun with Friends) has been working through the emotions with a little help from our Inside Out friends. We arrived at anger this week and will stay there a few lessons to make sure we’ve gathered some new tips 😉

I’m linking up this very long and very random blogpost with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching (thanks Kacey!)

Positively Learning Blog

Thanks for reading! Have a super weekend 🙂

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